ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To conduct scientometric studies on PhD ("Doctor of Philosophy") theses (i.e., doctoral theses), researchers should be able to access the theses. We aimed to explore how to obtain a list and full text of the defended PhD theses from medical schools in Croatia over 30 years (from the beginning of 1992 to the end of 2021). METHODS: We tried to obtain information from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK), universities, medical schools and online repositories. RESULTS: We could not find a single list (source) of all PhD theses. Based on 4 different sources (website of the University of Zagreb and Medical School in Rijeka; school administrator from Split; library catalog from Osijek), we gathered information that from the beginning of 1992 to the end of 2021, there were 2955 PhD theses defended at medical schools in Croatia - 357 in Osijek, 550 in Rijeka, 337 in Split and 1711 in Zagreb. In May 2022, the online Croatian Digital Dissertations Repository contained 631 (22%) of full-text theses in Portable Document Format (PDF). University of Zagreb School of Medicine has its own repository that holds the full text of 834 (49%) of their PhD theses. One of the three PhD programs of the University of Split School of Medicine, namely Translational Research in Biomedicine (TRIBE), published full texts of all PhD theses defended at that program on its website. NSK held 2650 (90%) of the theses in a printed version. CONCLUSION: It was extremely challenging to access the list and full texts of doctoral theses defended in Croatia. Making PhD theses publicly available would ensure transparency and enable analyses that should improve scientific policy.
ABSTRACT
The most appropriate way of evaluating the quality of scientific research is peer review by competent and objective colleagues. An objective review, however, is practically impossible within a small scientific community like the Croatian one, and the only solution in this case is internationalization of the process. In order to upgrade the objectivity of the evaluation, bibliometric/scientiometric indicators can be used, provided they are interpreted by experts in the field. The author believes that relative scales based on these indicators are of particular relevance for such small scientific communities. They enable determination of relative positions of a scientist, or a group of scientists, within a given scientific discipline, and for a given indicator, both at the international and/or national level. Such relative positions can often serve better for more objective evaluation than absolute values of the same indicators. An example of relative scales and their use is presented.
